A couple of weeks ago I was teaching a group new to agile some of the basics surrounding Scrum and related agile practices. It was going well. And, as is sometimes the case, I was getting full of myself and feeling over confident. Things were going smoothly, the attendees were “getting agile”, and life was very good.

Then it happened—from left field and without warning.

We were talking about the nature of a self-directed agile team. I was trying to paint the picture of group-based accountability and responsibility. How empowering it was and how it led to the best results. How teamwork, well basically ‘Rocked’, and how agile teams truly collaborated around the customer to deliver creative and high-quality solutions.